Distinguished Alumna Award
Alix Heintzman ’09, grew up outside of Bowling Green, Ky. She graduated from Berea at 19 years old with a history degree, and she spent the next few years disappointing her parents. She harvested blueberries in Maine, spent a summer as a Tractor Supply cashier and lived in a van for a while before going back to school. She got her master’s degree in history from the University of Vermont in 2013, where she studied empire and environment.
She was an adjunct professor at Eastern Kentucky University when she wrote her first novel. “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” was published in 2019 under the name Alix E. Harrow, because she was afraid her students would Google her. Since then, she’s published two more novels, a couple of novellas and many short fiction pieces. She’s won a Hugo and a British Fantasy award, and she has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Goodreads Choice and Southern Book Prize. Her books have been selected for Reese’s Book club, translated into more than a dozen languages and hit the New York Times bestseller list.
She lives in Charlottesville, Va., with her husband and their two perfect kids.
